Akwa Ibom State is a PDP stronghold to be protected at all cost especially as INEC announced 2019 timetable.
In this interview, Anny MICHAELS, the Special Assistant Media and Publicity to Distinguished Senator Bassey Albert representing Akwa Ibom North East and Chair, Senate Committee on Gas in the 8th senate bares his mind generously on a lot of issues including the performance of his principal, Senator Bassey Albert, the controversial Federal High Court 2, Uyo judgement, senate rejection of Ibrahim Magu’s nomination by the President and other burning national issues.

Q: Let's get to know you more Sir.
Thank you! My name is Anny Michaels. I am a Broadcast Journalist of repute. I anchored Pulse Radio series on Atlantic 104.5 FM, Uyo, among other radio programmes on Radio Nigeria in Abuja. I am the former Weekend Editor of the Nigerian Pulse Newspaper, one of the most consistent newspapers in Akwa Ibom state.

Q: How long have you been associated with Senator Bassey Albert?
It is a pretty long time, incidentally my principal, Senator Bassey Albert was my Senior at St.Patrick’s College, (SPACO) Calabar, he was House Prefect of my house, you know it is a boarding school so the interaction was more being together for five years and even thereafter we have been relating until his campaigns to become a Senator and subsequent election as Senator to serve Akwa Ibom North-East people at the 8th senate. Let me start by thanking him for finding me worthy to serve in this capacity of handling his image which entails ensuring positive relationship with the media community, print, online and broadcast. It has been a wonderful experience and I thank him graciously for the opportunity. He is such a pleasant Boss.

Q: Since assumption of office, how many bills has the Senator brought forward for the benefit of his people and Nigerians?
Let us start with the motions, he has been able to bring on board so far before we consider the bills. You can recall Ikot Ekpene-Itu–Calabar highway has been in very bad shape. The Senator had to move a motion that the highway be looked at even if it means providing some palliative measures to help people coming from Calabar, the South-South, South-Eastern States that was taken care of and the senate had to come up with an ad hoc committee to be able to look at what can be done. They visited the road and were able to give very useful information to the senate that paved way for including that major road in the 2016 budget. I think it is also part of 2017 budget. For now our people have been able to use the road rather than stay up to two or three days just to get to Calabar in Cross River State, so that was one of the first things he did when he got to the senate. Secondly, he was also able to come up with a motion to curb with soaring rate of youth unemployment. He sponsored the National Youth Empowerment and Development bill 2015 as well as the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Bill. You see the Senator is very youth friendly and looks at the future of our youths. He came up with that bill for government to be able to curb unemployment. The third is the Gas flaring prohibition bill which very recently passed through second reading. This bill is very necessary because it has to do with the wastage we have from the oil and gas industry especially when most Nigerians are struggling with firewood. He has been able to set agenda for the gas sector. As a matter of fact when he started he convened a meeting of members of the Gas committee and that committee started work in taking on oversight functions to all gas formations nationwide including LNG and he was able to meet with stakeholders especially the Gas Users Association, that is those who daily make use of gas as a business to ensure availability and smooth delivery to Nigerians. He made substantial contribution to the debate on Treasury Single Account (TSA) and medium term expenditure framework. You could remember the Treasury Single Account controversy, (TSA) he was one of the Senators that came out strong and was able to say that the TSA was not actually helping the economy. He posited that having to mob up cash which in a normal economic setting some cash are kept for short term investments while some are kept for long term but having to mob these cash out of the economy without any clear cut plan on ultilization which translated to difficulty in the business sector where most Nigerians are suffering. He came out strong and spoke about it. When it came to medium term expenditure framework which commenced as at Wednesday 9th of Dec 2016, Senators made contributions on whether subsidy on petroleum product should be removed or not, some reasoned the other way while some were of the opinion that the subsidy be removed on the basis that even with the subsidy in place petroleum products are being sold at higher prices than regulated price but others supported that subsidy should remain and was a form of welfare package for the privilege. In his contribution Senator Albert stressed on the need for timely submission of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF. ‘That helped the senate to take a fundamental stance on the subsidy payment and the issue of subsidy is sustainable so as a people we must understand that we have been having fuel at N195 per litre so where is the benefit of the subsidy.

Q: Apart from these bills and motions, what projects has Senator Albert drawn to the people of Akwa Ibom North-East senatorial district?
First you must understand that the Senator believes clearly in the peoples’ empowerment through education. He believes that it is more sustainable. People talk about giving cars, they talk about giving cash even when he has done empowerment via cash and cars before now he reasons that if his people who are in tertiary education who are brilliant and do not have the money to go to school, he should intervene. He came up with a university scholarship scheme where it was open for his people to come write the exams which over 800 people applied. He paid transport to everybody that came for the aptitude test. They wrote exams where lecturers from the university were brought in to mark at conference and names were shortlisted instantly. 120 names were shortlisted. What the Senator has done is not just the scholarship but takes care of all school expense. By that I mean school fees paid into the school accounts and then the beneficiaries come to the liaison office in Uyo and collect their school upkeep money and go back to school.

Q: Is the scholarship restricted to Nigerian universities or extended?

It is restricted to Nigerian universities. We have some students at YABATECH, UNIIBADAN, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, UNILAG, UNIUYO and other recognized universities in Nigeria so he has told them that he will take care of sponsorship throughout their stay in the university, even for those studying medicine, pharmacy. You know one would have thought that his tenure will elapse before their graduation but he has assured will continue to sponsor them.

Q: Is this scholarship exercise conducted every year?

No. It is on- going for the first 120 students. I can tell you that he spends over N10m annually to be able to write off the academic expenses of all these beneficiaries. So if you factor that in 4 , 5, 6 years depending on the courses of these students then you can better appreciate what the Distinguished Senator has done so that is just the picture. Beyond what he has done in the area of scholarship, he is also able to build for the first time a constituency office, what we call the Senator’s liaison office where constituents can come around, make complains and be attended to while he is in Abuja. It is a very effective office, very functional with very clear cut administrative system where you have the Chairman of the constituency office, Mr. Daniel Udoh alias North South who leads other key stakeholders drawn from all the 9 LGAs that make up Akwa Ibom North-East. The 9 LGAs has three representatives in that committee, Personal Assistants from all the 9 LGAs all earning good money and be able to take care of their families. This proves his connect with his people.The liaison office also has a 500 seater capacity hall and when you consider the relief knowing that other event centres in town charge between N200,000 to N400,000 per day in Uyo That constituents use the Senator’s own free of charge. He has also been able to establish a multi-purpose event centre at Ifa Attai, that project is suppose to have a free event centre for members of that constituency to use for wedding, child dedication, entrepreneurial meetings or allied business that add value to them. And you also have a section that is going to take care of training for JAMB and WASCE candidates from the District especially. When completed the multi-million naira project there will have provision for a compelling sports facility as well as relaxation centre for drinks, food and more.

Q: Now considering the culture and economy of the Senatorial District, what federal project has been attracted to the area courtesy of Senator Albert?

Recall that the Senator is of the PDP which is an opposition party but be that as it may the Distinguished Senator has been able to bring on board nine constituency projects which has been built and completed. Some are boreholes, market /toilet facilities. The Senator during the campaigns was told by the people of Adadia that they seriously need a toilet facility at the market there and he has made a change by ensuring that project there. At Ikot Ambang market in Ibiono Ibom we have a similar water closet toilet facility and water for sanitation. He fixed an abandoned water facility in Itu and other water projects in other LGAs, all of them are life touching. Some parts of the District are farmers and we have had reported cases of Fulani herdsmen damaging farm lands in some parts of Uyo and Uruan, what is Senator Albert’s reaction towards the protection of his people? That is a very sensitive issue especially as we talk about one Nigeria and we have people crossing over to different parts of the country for business and leisure. We know the herdsmen are nomadic in nature so they move into villages and you must have heard of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly proposing free grazing area for the herdsmen through the grazing bill in the spanners. This is something that is done all over the country to avoid conflict but even at that though the bill is yet to be subjected to public hearing, I know a lot of people have expressed sentiments that we should not give our land to these people. Some other States like Bayelsa and so on, have been able to come out with grazing areas to solve the problem. The Distinguished Senator is in Abuja and these things are happening back here you must also give it to the State House of Assembly to make laws to advance the works of the people of Akwa Ibom State. I believe that is being looked at but the important thing is that our people should be sensitized to be able to accommodate other people through friendliness to the northerners and other tribes at that who are in our midst. We also need to show love to people so that there won’t be conflict. We can’t also do without cows that they come around with since is a major component of our meals. When we have events like burials, weddings and our daily meals, it is a give and take situation. You don’t have to keep people away in the name of they are from the North. You also find people from the south living in Abuja you know and all of that which is northern part of Nigeria. So you must understand that our people must be sensitized even in our local dialect and part of the exposure should be in accommodating other people no matter the situation.

Q: There is a legal tussle involving Mr Bassey Etim against your Principal, Senator Bassey Albert, what do the people of the Senatorial District stand to lose should the plan to oust your Principal succeed?

Let me say categorically that Distinguished Senator Bassey Albert will not leave the red chambers and whatever plan will not succeed because the good people of Akwa Ibom North East clearly gave him the mandate in 2015, they elected him and in fact all that has happened is a shock to them. But he has also exercised his right to appeal by contending the matter at the Court of Appeal and then there is also a litigation that is also going on at a Federal High Court in Abuja where Mr Bassey Etim is being sued for forgery on the basis that the documents he presented to the court at Uyo were forged. The delegates list that was used for the primaries of the State House of Assembly, Governorship, House of Representatives and Senate was the same but the his own delegates list submitted to the Federal High Court, Uyo, was different because it was a strange list, so there is no way the primaries for the House of Assembly, Governorship, Representatives and Senate took place on the same day and the list he presented varied. And the result sheet he presented was also forged. If you look at the serial number of the result sheet that was given to Senator Akpabio it is not the same and the one given to Senator Nelson Effiong was not the same with what he presented to court, it means therefore that he manufactured the documents, he may have got a typical result sheet and he filled something and submitted in court. These issues are what the Inspector General of Police in Abuja is currently investigating on the strength of a petition raised by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom led by Obong Paul Ekpo, so the police will want to clear the mess through a thorough investigation and many more. To that extent the Senator will at the end of the day get victory and the people are very satisfied with his performance. Don’t forget there is also a subsisting court order by the Federal High Court, Abuja nullifying the Certificate of Return erroneously issued by INEC to Mr Bassey Etim as announced by Justice Nnamdi Dimgba even though he recently vacated the case but a new judge will be assigned by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. If you look at the senate currently you will see that in rating Senator Bassey Albert is among the top 10 Senators in Nigeria as we speak in terms of contributions on the floor of the senate, in terms of bills he has also brought to bear. He has been able to have two bills successfully and the third one is in the plenary, the Gas Flaring Prohibition Bill. This is unprecedented for a Senator from Akwa Ibom North East in just twenty one months and with time he can do more.

Thank you Sir.
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